IPods are great music players. But there are also other options. SanDisk has dipped its toes into the media player market and released a series of portable players. Looking at SanDisk’s product lineup and pricing structure, it is clear to see that the Sansa’s target audience would be people looking for a lower-proced media player compared to devices such as the iPod.The Sansa Fuze is an iPod Nana competitor. On the outside, it looks like the iPod Nano; on the inside, however, it packs a lot more functionality. The robust feature list includes support for subscription services such as eMusic, Napster, and Rhapsody To Go. You can display video and images on its 1.9-inch screen. The player also has an FM tuner, a voice recorder, and microSD expandability. The Fuze performed very well on its audio and video playback.Sansa Clip is good for people who use subscription music services, people who still listen to the radio, and people who want a small MP3 player with a screen. The Clip has been (and will continue to be) compared to the iPod Shuffle. The Clip is a perfectly capable digital audio player that can be clipped to your clothing like the Shuffle yet it has features the Shuffle doesn’t, such as an FM tuner, voice recording, subscription music compatibility, and a screen.The Sansa View is SanDisk’s flagship flash MP3 player with the ability to playback video on its 240*320 64k color screen. What makes the Sansa View interesting is its high capacity flash memory along with memory expansion putting it in close rivalry to hard drive bassed players. The other thing going for the View is the “band for the buck” factor. It may not be a high end player, but it is one of the best values on the market. The SanDisk Sansa e200 series combines copious features such as subscription compatibility, an FM tuner/recorder, voice recording, and photo and video playback into a compact and durable device. The user-removable battery and the Micro SD slot are nice touches, and the device has decent sound quality, processor performance, and battery life. Finally, the Sansa e200 series e280 has a maximum base capacity of 8GB, and it offers a competitive price in the high-stakes world of high-capacity flash players.

Common video and audio files can be used in Sansa players. Sansa View: supports most audio formats, including MP3, protected and unprotected WMA, WAV, DRM-free MP3 downloads. Video compatibility with MPEG4, WMV, H.264 formats; Smooth video playback at 30 frames per second.Sansa Clip: plays MP3, WMA, secure WMA and Audible audio file formats. Up to 15 hours of playtime with internal rechargeable battery.Sansa e280: support WMA, MP3 audio files; AVI, WMV, ASF, MOV, MPEG, MPEG-4 format videos.Sansa Fuze: it support audio formats including MP3, OGG, FLAC, WMA, secure WMA, WAV, Audible. For videos, the official Sansa website said it support MP3G4 videos, however, when I convert an mp4 videos and convert it into Sansa Fuze with SMC, my player can't play the video. Again I found a post in abi forum: http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27460 it said that Sansa Fuze support AVI format video. I have been confused about it for a long time and haven't got the clear answer until now. Should I use mpeg4 videos or AVI format videos in Sansa Fuze? Luckily, I have found a way to get Fuze compatible video with a DVD to Sansa converter, as this converter not only converts videos for common Sansa player, but also convert Sansa Fuze compatible videos. I can convert Fuze videos directly with it. What’s the format and video code? Who cares？See the below:The “Sansa Fuze MP4 Movie (*.mp4)” profile is set for Sansa Fuze videos. So what we need it do is load DVD file by press the “Open DVD”button, choose the “Sansa Fuze MP4 Movie (*.mp4)” profile and click “convert” button, then you get the Fuze compatible video. Convert the video files into Sansa Fuze with SMC and enjoy. Options: if you have no DVD, you can get Fuze videos from any other video formats file with Sansa converter, which also support “Sansa Fuze MP4 Movie (*.mp4)” profile, and you can convert videos into Fuze video directly.

This summer there are some very strong devices out there including Blackberry Tour, Nokia N97, HTC Magic, iPhone 3G S, Palm Pre. Some may prefer iPhone 3G S or Palm Pre, but at last I have narrowed down my choices to Blackberry Tour and Nokia N97, and I’ve had a really tough time choosing between the two:Blackberry tour:· Supports high-speed 3G EV-DO Rev· Non-touchscreen, a large, highly tactile, full-QWERTY keyboard for fast and precise typing · Advanced media player for videos, pictures and music, a 3.5 mm stereo headset jack and support for the Bluetooth Stereo Audio Profile (A2DP/AVCRP) · 256MB Flash memory, support cards of up to 16GB · Built-in GPS with support for geotagging, BlackBerry Maps· Allowing users to edit Microsoft(R) Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the handset · Easy mobile access to Facebook(R), MySpace and Flickr(R), as well as popular instant messaging services including BlackBerry Messenger, Yahoo! IM, AIM(R), Google Talk and Windows Live Messenger· Support for BlackBerry App World, as well as third-party mobile applications · BlackBerry Internet Service allows access to up to 10 supported personal and corporate email accounts · No Wi-Fi, it is said to be added in the future.

That’s the simple information I have got about the two phones. Here I should explain my smartphone requirements. I’m looking for a device to serve as my personal telephone, media player, mini computer and business assistant. For personal telephone, it is used for daily contact, to make calls and receive calls. Both Blackberry tour and Nokia N97 were easy to use and very convenient to dial a number.

For multimedia, both of them are advanced media player for videos, music and pictures. Blackberry tour supports video formats including MPEG4, H.263, H.264 (encoding and decoding 30fps), WMV and audio format including MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA. Nokia N97 can play mp4 and 3gp videos with up to 640*360 pixels resolution. Personally I prefer to watch movies with Blackberry tour. In the meantime I go to Nidesoft Inc to get programs Nidesoft Blackberry Converter Suite, which rip DVDs and videos into Blackberry-friendly files. Just copy the converted file to memory card, pop it into phone’s card slot, and enjoy. Or use program Nidesoft Nokia video converter if you would like to choose N97 as media player.

As for connectivity, the Nokia N97 looks like a good all-rounder, with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and an Infrared port. The BlackBerry Tour features Bluetooth as well, (with A2DP) but is somehow lacking Wi-Fi (just like the much-derided BlackBerry Storm). Although the rumor said that the Blackberry Storm 2 will have Wi-Fi. N97 also features an FM radio, which the Tour doesn't.

If you always travel around for work then Blackberry can be a wonderful assistant. The BlackBerry Tour smartphone provides the industry's leading mobile solution for email, messaging (IM, SMS, MMS) and social networking together with built-in GPS. I like type emails and message with the full-QWERTY keyboards fast and easily. N97 also have GPS and can send emails, but the business-oriented Blackberry tour is better for business assistant.

In the end, I make up my decision. The Blackberry tour won out, it made the most sense to me as media player and business assistant. But as I’ve noted the Nokia N97 was also pretty impressive and could be a viable option for many others.

Sony Walkman has turned 30 years old today. Thirty years ago, the device was revolutionary changed the way people listened to music. Sony sold 30,000 Walkmans in the first two months after its launch, and 50 million within a decade. It created the portable media player market. Three decades on, however, Sony is struggling against rivals such as Apple, which has enjoyed immense success with its iPod music player. Apple iPod might be the market leader today. While people celebrate Walkman’s 30th birthday, I wonder what makes iPod became dominance in the media player market instead of the original Sony Walkman?

Sony Company has always been developing its video and audio products. Sony Walkman’s latest flagship model, the NW-X1060, packs noise canceling, a bright touch screen display, mobile TV, and the ability to surf the Internet With the storage of 32GB, it can hold 8,000 songs (128kbps mp3) or 120h video playback (at 384kbps). It support all major file types includes MP3, MP4, WMA, AAC, Linear PCM, AVC, WMV, JPEG. The Sony PSP Go will come in fall of this year. It is a much smaller, sexier device that drops the UMD, adds 16GB of flash RAM and Bluetooth, and compresses the older PSP’s brick-like form factor to a narrower, sleeker size and shape. It’s got a huge amount of storage space for you to store music, videos and games. The files support MPEG-4, AVI video format and MP3 audio format.Besides the multimedia player, Sony’s phone also has powerful multimedia function. The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 is convergence of multimedia entertainment and mobile web communication. It has a 3.0 inches TFT touchscreen with shades of 65K internal screen colours and gives a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. This let the users to play games and watch video clips on its wide screen easily. The video resolution support 640x480 pixels and video format support MPEG-4. The music format support: MP3, AAC, AAC+, eACC+, WMA (including protected WMA). By the way, a lot of people don’t know where to get videos and songs when they take a Sony multimedia device. Some may purchase music and movies online. If you still don’t know where to get or don’t want to buy online, you may use Nidesoft DVD to Sony Xperia Converter to convert DVD files into your Sony device, or use Nidesoft Sony Xperia Converter to convert all other video files into Sony device. It can be used for all Sony products.

After look into Sony product, let’s turn our attention to iPod. Apple first released the original iPod in late 2001, and it was quickly destined to be a huge success. It was exactly what people wanted. It has simple interface, large capacity, fashionable, and visually attractive. Simple Interface - The Apple iPod has an extremely simple interface, needing only a few seconds of use to be able to master it. It is very easy to use.

Large capacity - The current regular iPod has 8GB or 16GB capacity. It can holds large amount of songs and movies, enable you to enjoy them.

It's visually attractive – The appearance of iPod was fashionable. They made it look very sexy, appealing to just about everyone, and is now extremely recognizable. Windows and Mac compatibility - When they crossed over to the windows market, they more than tripled their market, literally reaching anyone that owned a computer.

These are the things that really make the Apple iPod dominate the mobile MP3 player market, reaching over 70% of the market share. Apple never simply wanted to dominate the market with one product though, they're still releasing new products at an alarming rate, each of which are doing extremely well. From iPod Mini to iPod Shuffle, iPod Touch, iPod Nano, from first generation to second generation, third generation. The Apple iPod will never stop giving us surprise by improving its iPod products, and I think that is the most important reason why iPod lead the media player market.